The Final Stand
by Anechoic clap
Summary: Set just after wolf island. Grubbs and his pack of werwolves are fighting to protect humanity from the demonata invasion. Lots of fights; it's demons versus werewolves.
1. Chapter 1: demonata ambush

**This is set after wolf island, story developes from there.  
>Disclaimer: I don't own demonata or any of the origanal characters<br>**

**Chapter 1: Demonata, ambush**

Suddenly a wave of magic hits me. I can feel the power in the air, the magic seeping into my pores and unlocking huge potential. I take in a deep breath, and feel the power run through me, I'm stronger and faster, and have the full powers of a magician.

I stop to think just for a moment. Somewhere a window has opened, and presumably it's close by. Another demon attack, they're starting to happen with increasing frequency now. Maybe it really is the end of the world, if the demons just keep coming. But for now we can stop them, cover every location at which they appear. Windows don't stay open for long anyway.

I let out a loud commanding howl, summoning my pack to my side. These are creatures of magic, created from a tainted blood line. All of them are the strongest and fastest, and have also been synthetically augmented, by a corrupted sector of the lambs.

We're standing in the streets of a city. Not sure where we are exactly. There have been a lot of demon attacks lately, and a few people are starting to believe in them. Here however, the local population have been told there's a bomb in the city, planted by a terrorist group. The whole area has been evacuated.

My pack had been flown in, by a jet owned by contacts of the disciples. Along with me, Bec, Meera, Kirilli and Dervish. Also several soldiers are joining us to assist. Although, they're not very affective at combating demons, they can do some damage, and kill some demons, but they're vulnerable compared to a mage.

As for Kernal... we haven't seen him in a while. He disappeared not long ago, no one seems to know what happened. Dervish, Bec and Kirilli say that they saw him for a second, wrestling with a zombie, standing next to a window, and then the zombie exploded, and they're unsure whether kernel did too, but the window had gone.

I see the approaching demons now, and also hear their advance. They won't have expected to find the whole place deserted, and worse, they've found themselves ambushed. They expected there to be countless humans to slaughter. But all there is to greet them is my pack of werewolves, and some support from mages and soldiers.

I lower my head and growl, most of my pack do the same. The demons, in all their variety are getting closer. Revealing them in their horrific appearance. Looking very dangerous, a collection of stolen shapes. They are also somewhat ridiculous, such combinations of limbs, that could only be held together by magic.

I charge, and pack follows.

The mages and soldiers hold back, leaving me and my pack to take the main force of the demons

I close in on the first demon, it has the body of a bear, but with three snake heads. As I get closer, I lash out and grab one of the heads. I rip of the snake and throw it onto the ground. The rest of the heads hiss at me, and the body goes wild.

One of the massive arms swings at me in an outrage. I catch the beasts arm and then sink my fangs into the fresh. The snakes hiss again, the closest they're going to be to a yell and the other arm swings at me. I catch the second blow with my other arm.

With both arms in my grasp the snake eyes glare at me with hate, and the body goes wild again, trying to shake out of my grip. One of the heads spits acid at me, this is unexpected but I turn it to water just before it hits me. I end up getting a spash of water in my face.

I release the grip on one of the beasts arms and throw a punch at it's chest. My claws rip through the skin and dig into the flesh. Then I unleash a powerful bolt of magic, staright into the demons body. They huge demon explodes, and I find myself showered in demonic blood, nice!

The next demon attacks straight away. This one is bigger than the last, like a beetle, but huge. I dodge the pincers, so big and sharp they could take of an arm.

I paralyse the pincers with magic. The demon tries to attack, but then realises it's pincers aren't working. The giant beetle shakes it's head incomprehensibly, trying to get it's paralysed pincers to work.

I jump onto the massive creatures back. The shell is slippery, so I dig the claws of my feet into the shell. I pound at the shell with one of my fists. This yields no results so I raise both my hands, and then slam down with huge force.

My fists smash through the shell, and a loud shriek comes from the demon. I ignore it and start to radiate heat from my fists. The demon shrieks again and starts to shake around, trying to get me off its armoured back.

I stream fire into its insides. The inside of the giant beetle burns with speed. The giant demon shakes around a few times before dropping dead. I jump down from its back. Almost immediately I feel a sharp pain in my back.

I realised a spiked object has gone right through me. I growl and send powerful electric shock through the sharp limb. A hear a loud squawk behind me and the spike is withdrawn.

I turn the face the attacking demon. It has the body of a lion, but the head of an eagle. It also has a long sharp tail, like that of a scorpion. With another sqawk the demon charges at me. I swing one of my arms at the creature. I catch the demons' throat with my claws, and they rip through.

Blood pours out of the wound, but the demon is far from dead. The tail lashes around wildly until it makes a lunge for me. This time I grab the tail before it hits me. I send another electric shock through the demon.

I keep my grip on the lion's scorpion tail, and increase the power of the shock until it's blood boils and bursts from the skin. I'm left holding the tattered remains of the demons tail, I throw it to the ground.

I face the next demon. It resembles a spider, however it's about the same size I am and has no eyes, but a collection of eight mouths. It runs towards me on what must be at least ten pairs of legs.

I fire a bolt of magic at the advancing demon. The creature is driven back slightly. I unleash several more bolts of magic. I'm about finish off the beast, but then unexpectedly it pounces at me.

The large body collides into me and tackles me to the ground. It's many legs wrap around me, and hold in a vice like lock. All eight mouths bit into me. I howl in pain. I think quickly and react, and make my skin red hot. The legs wrapped around me are unable to hold without being burnt off.

The giant spider releases me quickly, shaking on its ten burnt legs and I smash a fist into it's the top of the creature. All of its legs sprawl outward and the spider collapses onto the ground. I lunge at it with both hands, dig my claws into the creature and then rip outward, opening several huge wounds in the creature.

I fire two more bolts of magic in quick succession at the injured demon to finish it off.

Two more demons advance on me. Both look the same, they have the body of a horse, a huge crocodile tail, and the head is just an oversized mouth, designed to fit in as much teeth as possible.

One of them charges at me and latches onto my arm. I howl in pain and pound at the head with my free arm. I change the shape of the arm that in its mouth, and grow several huge sharp protrusions. The sharp spikes penetrate through the large head, and blood starts to pour from the head.

The demon however is now stuck onto my arm, both by its teeth, and the huge spikes that penetrate straight through the beast's head. The other one charges at me, and I fire several bolts of magic to keep it back.

I twist my spiked arm sharply, and the demon's head attached to hit, moves with my arm, resulting in the head ripping off. I continue to fire bolts of magic at the second creature, while the first one goes mad, and the crocodile tail, starts to thrash around wildly.

I'm hit twice. The first time, several ribs are fractured, and the second time my back is hit with the same kind of force. Upon the third strike I grab it's huge tail and use magic to set the demon on fire.

The demon I'd fired the bolts at, takes the last hit it can withstand, and the demon dies. I point one of my hands at the one on fire, and intensity of the heat increases, and the flames rise higher. The demon shrieks one last time, and then drops to the ground. I knock the demon head and shrink the protrusions.

I raise my clawed hands and growl, like I'm daring the world. However I notice there're no demons left to fight. Most of my werewolves are ahead of me, I'd let myself fall behind, caught up fighting demons.

I howl and charge forward, eager to kill more demons before the fight is over.

In the distance I see one of my werewolves locked into combat with demon, with many limbs, all lined with blades. I concentrate on the demon and send an invisible wave of magic at it. One of its limbs, explode. The creature cries angrily, and lashes out at the werewolf it's fighting. I explode all of the creature's attacking limbs.

The demon cries again, and the werewolf yelps with delight and tackles the beast to the ground and rips it to pieces.

I turn to look at the window. A demon flies through it. It really did fly, it has wings.

It's not the only one though, several flying demons start to pour through the window. I howl at them and charge towards the window.

I close in, and jump up, grabbing one of the flying creatures with my fangs and dragging it to the ground. The beast yells at me angrily. I slash at the demon with my claws. The demon shakes, but I hold on and rip the demon to shreds.

I fire two bolts of magic in quick succession on another of the flying demons. The creature loses control of its flight and falls to the ground where my werewolves are awaiting it.

Most of the other flying demons stay up high and start to spit acid down. I concentrate and deflect most of the attacks to the side. They slam into buildings and start to burn through the concrete walls. Some hit the road and dig themselves into the tarmac.

One of my werewolves is hit, with a yelp it recoils, and quickly I turn the acid into water.

Then suddenly I hear the loud crackling of gun fire. The soldiers have opened fire upon the flying beasts. Several are hit with the rifle fire. They scream as the bullets rip into them and them fall to the ground were the awaiting werewolves rip them to pieces.

The gun fire continues, and several of the demons die before they even hit the ground. The ones that haven't been hit by the guns spit down more acid in anger. I deflect the acid and send it straight back at the source. The demons find themselves hit with their own acid, they scream angrily and fall to the ground.

The flying demons find themselves outmatched by the soldiers. The number in the sky start to reduce rapidly and the demons find themselves ripped apart by the bullets.

One of the demons fly straight at me, I'm about to knock it from the sky when I realise it's not heading for me, but the window. I turn around to look at the window, I let the demons escape. The window is starting to shimmer and ripple at the edges, and it's blue colour is starting to mix with others.

All of a sudden the demons start to retreat to their own universe of horrors. They're out of time, and if the window closes before they reach it, they'll be stranded here, and they'll die within minutes.

My pack howls with delight and start to give chase. With their backs turned to the werewolves, several are caught and killed during their retreat. I watch, and then run to the side when I realise I'm standing directly in front of the window.

With the demons retreating our resistance force is now in full control. Even the soldiers start to charge forward, yelling at the demons and firing they're guns.

The window ripples once more and then blinks out of existence.

One of the demons that almost made it stops and shrieks at the space where the window stood. Gun fire rips the creature apart, and it's not about to put itself together.

The magic fades from the air and some of the demons that didn't make it collapse. The over sized limbs weighing them down, several start to get crushed under their own weight. The magic that held the beasts together is now fading from the air.

I howl to summon my werewolf pack to me. They start to gather around me, and I assess their injuries. Most are uninjured, or only with some minor injuries, a few have some bad injuries, however is seems all have survived this fight at least.

With the remaining power in the air I heal them the best I can, I focus on the worst of the injuries of my pack. It's not really my speciality, but I'm a magician, there's not much I can't do, and I don't need to be good at healing. I just need to tend to the serious injuries, and prevent any deaths, the werewolves will heal quickly and fully on their own.

They may not be true creatures of magic like the demonata, but they are much tougher than any human, and most are more powerful than mages. My pack always win anyway, the only demonata we have fought o far are familiars. Weak demonata, none of them can use magic the way that mages can, all that these demons can do is hold their bodies together.

This is the reason why we have to be very quick to eliminate the demons that come through windows. If the mage who created the window is allowed to live, the window will get stronger and become able to allow stronger demonata through.

Thankfully this rarely happens with a window, if the demons wanted to make a true invasion attempt, they'd have to open a tunnel. If a tunnel opened when we would have to close it as soon as we can. Tunnels just keep getting stronger, and if the masters start getting through then we're finished. Masters are far stronger than magicians, so mages will be no match against a demon master. Not even me and my pack cold take down a master; or maybe we could, but we wouldn't be able to fight two, and one maybe too much for us to handle.

Things are looking ok for this particular attack. Not too much damage. The road is covered in holes, created from the acid. This whole section will have to be torn up and then relayed. There's some acid damage to the surrounding buildings as well, but it's minor, will only take some small repair work. Apart from that there's bodies of the demonata everywhere.

**Chapter 2: Preparation**

An hour after the demon attack and I'm eating a meal with Dervish, Bec, Kirilli and Meera. There are also a few connections of the disciples, Timas and Mark, and also Prae Athim is still with us. After the threat of the demonata, the lambs are now helping the disciples. At first the lambs wanted to use this opportunity to study the demonata, which could help lead to some major breakthroughs, but after the threat became series they've started to work for the disciples.

Mark is one of the connections of the disciples. He's in the army and is in charge of all of the soldiers that are travelling with us. There is a also a group of lambs who take care of the werewolves when I'm in my human form. Right now they're being fed and contained in a warehouse.

"You're looking better Grubbs," says Dervish, referring to my fully human form.

"So are you!" I laugh. He truly is looking better, he always wants to join in the fight against the demonata whenever there's a attack. I don't let him, not that I can really stop him, unless I physically stopped him.

The magic that is in the air when the demons attack is good for him. Though every time it fades he looks and feels slightly better than before. In a few months he will have recovered completely from his heart attack.

"I have received recent intelligence of a demonata attack in the middle of the Australian desert." Says Mark.  
>"When is the window due to open?" Asks Dervish<br>"Ah, well, the thing is Mr Grady... it opened 32 hours ago."

Everyone looks up at this, and Mark is looking a little awkward. "What?" I ask "how come no one knew?"  
>"We do know" says Mark unhelpfully.<br>"Why haven't you received information about this sooner?" Enquires Dervish  
>"Like <em>before<em> the attack!" I cut in

"I can only make a guess on that. I presume it's because it's in the middle of the dessert, not very many people live there."  
>"Then we should make that our next destination," says Timas.<br>"Perhaps" says Mark "but there's an attack coming soon in Argentina."

"Windows don't stay open for 32 hours" says Meera.  
>"Of course!" I say suddenly "are you sure it isn't a tunnel?"<br>"The intelligence reports a large two dimensional green rectangle, surrounded by demonata forces, I know no more than that."  
>"Sounds like a window," says Dervish.<p>

The only tunnel I've ever come across is in the cave back at Carcerly Vale. It required a lodestone and a human sacrifice. (Bill-E, I'm so sorry Bill-E) a key, that's the human, and they become part of the tunnel. Tunnels stay open indefinitely; they keep getting stronger, allowing stronger and stronger demons through.

"There may be a mage keeping it open" says Dervish "either that or it's a tunnel."  
>"Well there's a window due to open in Argentina is roughly 22 hours, so it's up to you where to go next," says Mark.<p>

"Well, if it's a tunnel then the demonata have found a lodestone." Says Dervish "however it must be opened by a mage, and they wouldn't choose the middle of a desert, they'd choose the most densely populated place they can find."

"Perhaps" says Meera "unless they've tried to sneak through; under the radar, the tunnel can build unopposed, once it reaches a certain strength, stronger demons will get through."  
>"Whether it's a window or a tunnel, we should go there next," I say.<br>"What about the other attack?" Asks Mark.  
>"We either get there on time or we don't, but this thing in the desert, it's more important."<p>

"Grubbs is right, by now the demonata getting through are going to be stronger than what we're used to."

We stop discussing the demon invasion in the dessert. We'll be going there as soon as everyone is ready, and Mark says he'll work on a tactic. Hell! We don't need a tactic! This isn't a regular war, Mark's war tactics are just not going to work the way he's used to. We're at war with the demonata, this is like nothing humans are used to, only the disciples know what they're doing.

One thing that we try not to mention is the desperation of the situation. This isn't a war we can win, we are only holding on for as long as we can. But at least we can defend our planet! They can attack as much as they like, but we'll be waiting, and we will not go down without a fight, and as long as we can keep up, we won't go down.

We stop talking about the demons, just to get it off our minds. It really can't be healthy thinking about fighting demons all the time.

I really enjoy just talking about something other than our fight for humanity. Bec does most of the talking, even though she seems a little shy. She has the most to tell, about her life, so long ago, when things were so different. She tells of her life before the attacks of course.

Back in her time there was more magic in the air. Still very thin compared to the magic charged realms of the demonata universe. But there was more magic than there is today. As a result the past mages are stronger than our own, only slightly, and only due to the greater supply of accessible energy.

I don't have much to say, and I don't want to talk. Kirilli has a lot to say but no one is really interested in listening to him. He's a little unsure of himself when it comes to a fight. He's much better now than he was upon our first fight. Still he's not as confident the other mages, and much less confident than the soldiers.

In a few hours I'm feeling different. Not better exactly, as a during the fight I was feeling great. However that's only because I'm part werewolf, now I'm in my human form I don't enjoy fights. In my human form I want to talk to people, forget about my worries and just feel human.

In another couple of hours it's dark outside and the city centre is no longer completely abandoned. Mark and a group of soldiers set of a "controlled explosion" in the middle of the road where the remains of the fight are. It's to explain the damage, by covering it up in some real major damage, and to fit the story of the terrorist attack.

We're in a rather awkward position, where a few people believe in demons and everyone has heard the conspiracy. Some people believe it while most people don't, which is logical. However most people are sure something is going on, while most just continue with their lives and remain intrigued and curious, a few dismiss it as a joke.

Either way the disciples have decided to carry on covering up demon attacks, at least for the time being. It's becoming rather difficult though, very recently the attacks are rather frequent, and it's becoming very hard work. Soon though the disciples say that it won't be necessary. They may just stop their work to speed up the process of human realisation.

We moved to a four star hotel, and kept the werewolves where they were, Prae Athim and some soldiers went to tend to them. I smile to myself, imagining them starting howl. That! Will scare the locals, the night becoming alive with the howls of my werewolves. It is a little convenient having to hide everything, but that's is slowly changing.

Earlier the city centre was a ghost town. Everything evacuated to smaller villages and towns and the outskirts of the city. I'm glad all the residents are back, the city has a nice feel about it now. I don't like the empty cities, it gives an apocalyptic feel, and that is exactly what I don't want when fighting demons, a suggestion that they might win.

I'm standing in my room. It's quite late now, and we decided to sleep for while before moving to the dessert. It's precious time we're wasting, but it's already been open for 32 hours, would another 15 or so do much harm, well it probably would. We still need our sleep though, we're not living in a zone of magic.

I have the lights on, I know I should get some sleep and I want to, but I'm finding it difficult. So instead I decide to go for a walk, explore the city a little, try to clear my mind of all thoughts.

I take the key to my room and put it in my pocket and then make my way to the exit of the hotel. "When you come back," says the receptionist while I'm on my way out "please be quiet, most be people are asleep; thank you."

The receptionist looks awkward for second while he considers whether his comment was a little rude. I just nod to him and walk out of the hotel into the cool night air.

The sky is dark but only a few stars are visible along with a half moon. There's too much light pollution to see many stars. But that doesn't bother me, I prefer being in a city, I don't really care for star constellations.

I start walking. Even for the middle of the night it's pretty busy. There are several people walking about, not nearly as many as the day, but more than there would be in Carcerly Vale.

The streets are lit up in a familiar orange glow from the dozens of street lamps than line up along the roads and streets and off into the distance. The high rise apartments and buildings are lit up from a few windows, giving further illumination to the night.

There a rows of buildings, consisting of shops hotels, like the one I'm staying in and other buildings. Most of the shops have closed for the night, the shutters down and the lights off. However there are still illuminated signs on most, advertising their speciality, low prices, large range of products and that sort of thing.

I start walking. I know exactly where I'm going, it's about a kilometre away. I follow one of the lines of buildings. I like the feel of the cold air on my face. The darkness is comforting in a way, along with the numerous lights, so it's not true darkness. Also there are a few people around.

I walk along the side path along one of the main roads. Every ten seconds or so a car comes zooming past. The rear lights standing out for a few seconds and then fading into the array of the city lights until they disappear completely from view.

In a few minutes I reach my destination. I turn a corner to the right and stare at the scene before me.

It's the location of the previous fight. There's a lot more damage here than caused by the real event. Now the road is completely ruined, there's a crater right in the middle where the explosion was detonated.

The two surrounding buildings only had acid damage to the concrete foundations. Now they are in a complete wreck. Every single window has been shattered, giving the buildings a skeletal look. The street does look like it's been devastated by a bomb.

The whole street has been cut off from the rest of the city. Yellow tape has been put up around both sides, and it has also been barricaded with traffic cones. I look at the destruction for a few seconds, a few memories of the fight coming back to me. But the memories are strange, I wasn't fully human at the time, it's like remembering flashes of a dream.

I turn my back on the wrecked street and walk to a drinks stand. I order a cup of coffee and then return to my previous position and stare at the street once more. I let my mind wander wile I drink the coffee and stare out at the street but don't really see anything.

After a few minutes I'm aware of someone walking up to me. I presume they're just getting a better look at the scene that appears to have me captivated.

I listen to the approaching footsteps until the man is standing right next to me. He gazes out at the wreckage of the road. "Hi," he says. I pause for a for a few moments and then reply "Hi."

The man continues to look out at the scene in front of him. I look at him and sip my coffee. Then he turns to face me and stares straight into my eyes. "There was a demon attack here wasn't there?"

I pause and look at him, holding the cup of coffee just below my nose. My mind races for something to say. What approach do I take? Tell him that demons aren't real? But that just seems foolish. But what about telling him the truth? Wouldn't that also be foolish?

I can't just stay silent, that's like a reply in itself. If I don't deny the existence of demons, or don't call him crazy then I'll be confirming his question. I wouldn't ever consider telling someone that demons are real. However I've never been in a situation like this before. Also things are a little different now.

So after a long pause I stare straight back at him and say "yes."  
>He glances away closes his eyes and nods. He stares back at the road in front of him in what seems to be a state of bewilderment.<p>

"I thought so," he says quietly.  
>I take another sip of my coffee and glance at him. "Who are you?" I ask.<br>He stays looking ahead of him, but his eyes glance to the side.

He turns to face me again and frowns. "Who am I?" He asks.  
>Yes you, who else? Idiot. "Who are you?" He asks me in return.<br>"You first" I say and shake my head.  
>"All right, my name is Peter Johnson."<p>

"You know; that's not quite what I meant."~  
>"What did you mean then?" He asks and he seems to be genuinely confused.<br>"Most people don't ask whether there was a demon invasion earlier in the day."

"Well, I see the world for what it is."  
>"How do you know about demons?" I ask.<br>"There are times when I do unexplained things, and they always occur before the appearance of another demon story."

A smile to myself, a mage then. I wander what to do now. Should I introduce him to the disciples. They need all the help they can get. However it would not be fair on this man to get introduced so forcefully with the world of the demonata.

"Are you going to answer my question?" Enquires Peter.  
>"What do you want to know?" I ask quietly.<br>"I asked who you were."  
>After a moment's pause I say "my name is Grubbs."<p>

He raises an eyebrow, it's a strange name I know. At least it's better than my full name which is truly awful. I realise the name probably sounded like a lame on the spot fake. I smile to myself.

"Like you said, it's not quite what I meant; you know?"  
>"You must have some idea, after all you knew I was involved in the demon attack."<br>"I can sense it," says Peter "something about you, that's like me."

We stay silent for a few moments. If I get Peter any more involved in this mess, he won't get back out. There's no point getting him any more involved in the demonata than he already is. He may be curious, but it's better if he stays slightly in the dark than face the full horror of the demonata.

I make a decision and start to head off. "Well, bye then," calls Peter after me.  
>"Goodbye." I say loud enough for him to hear.<p>

He doesn't try to stop me or shower me with questions. I haven't even answered his last question. I know I acted conspicuously, but so what? It doesn't matter any way. Peter will always know there is more top the world. Hopefully it will remain just him. However I fear more people will come to realise the existence of the demonata and more people will have awakened magic potential.

I arrive back at the hotel after fifteen minutes of walking. I open the door and the receptionist looks up from a newspaper he's reading. "Welcome" he says. Then he goes back to his newspaper. Ok, I think, that was a long conversation.

I go over to the lift and select our floor. We have a lot of people with us, and have taken up almost the whole floor, and this is no small hotel. There are a few people tending to the werewolves (aren't they lucky) but the rest of the soldiers are staying here.

I arrive on our floor and start walking down the corridor. The whole section is lit and there is some light escaping under the doors of a few rooms. Most however are dark, by now must people should be asleep. _I_ should be asleep now, soon I'll be fighting demons again, in the desert. I don't like that thought. I know that when I'm in werewolf form I'll enjoy the fight, and look forward to it. However at the moment; it just holds no appeal.

As I'm walking, I pass an open door. "Can't sleep?" Asks a voice. I pause and look to my left. It's Bec's room, she's sitting on the bed facing the door.

I pause for a moment wondering what to say, "no," I say, thinking. Well, actually I'm now back after taking doing something to help me sleep. "I can't sleep, not right now." She says.

"Why not," I ask absent mind idly, and then frown at my own question.  
>"I usually have trouble sleeping" She asks.<br>"Why?"  
>"Well... mainly because I don't want to."<p>

"Well that would explain it." I laugh. "But why?"  
>"I've spent so long in state that counts as neither, it feels good just to be awake."<br>"You should sleep; you need to."

"Do you dream?" She asks.  
>"Of course, everyone does."<br>"I... don't, usually, I wish I could," she says and the she closes her eyes as if concentrating on something.

"You don't dream?" I ask.  
>"No, or at least not often."<br>"Well, it's not like you'd remember it, even if you did."  
>She smiles at this, "I would."<p>

I feel her hand on my shoulder. I think nothing of it at first. It feels so casual, not jumping out as out of place. Then suddenly a thought hits me. There is something else that I can't feel. She's absorbing my memories!

I step back, suddenly in a complete panic. Distressed that she might have learned of Juni's prophecy. Also I'm angry about what she just did. It's just so discrete, cunning, almost sinister. She can just reach out and steal my memories, in a flash. Oh no! Just how fast does she do it? How much does she know now?

This is a complete violation of trust, it's not like I can steal her memories in return.  
>"What?" I ask loudly, stepping back.<br>She looks bewildered.  
>"What did you do?" I ask.<br>"What...?" She seems confused.  
>"What do want to know!" I shout angrily.<p>

"What?" She says sounding confused and upset.  
>I don't take <em>your<em> memories."  
>"No, but..." then she opens her arms "you can trust me I don't have any secrets."<br>"Well I don't have any sec..." I stop there, I'm telling a direct lie and she knows it.

"Look... I don't believe what Juni said..."  
>"How much did you take?" I ask distressed.<br>"Look, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to take your memories." She says.

I consider what she said. Maybe she's telling the truth, but in a way it doesn't matter. Either way she took some of my memories, and most importantly the one about Juni's prophecy. Hell! It's the only thing I have to hide, the only secret I had, and now Bec knows.

"You don't believe Juni?" I ask cautiously.  
>"No; and neither should you, there's always the chance to choose."<p>

"I'm sorry," she says "I didn't mean to take your memories."  
>"No, that's ok, I shouldn't of kept that secret... but..."<br>Bec holds her arms out again. I hug her.

I feel better to no longer have the secret. I don't have to hide it anymore, right now, I'm not hiding anything. I can't imagine what it's like for Bec. In a few seconds she'll know my life almost as well as I do.

A few minutes later and I'm in bed, and this time I'll sleep.

Bec is in my room. She said she spent so much time alone in the cave, that she can't dream. I find trouble relating the two, but I sort of understand. She said that if she wasn't alone she may be able to dream, or at least sleep.

I'm glad for the company, even I can't see her, I know she's there, if I listen hard enough, I can hear her breathing. There aren't two beds in this room. She was going to take some of the bedding, but instead I just moved the entire thing using magic. I could of just as easily picked it up and carried it through. Being a lycan and a magician comes in handy.

"Do you think Kernal's alive?" I ask into the darkness.  
>"I don't know, we aren't sure."<br>"What do you think?"  
>"If the shadow had his piece of the Kah Gash, I think we'd know about it."<br>"I think you're right." I say.

After several minutes of silence I say "Bec?"  
>I wait for an answer, but there is none. I smile to myself, I'm glad she's asleep.<p>

**If annyone is actually reading this, I'll update**


	2. Chapter 3: The desert fight

**Chapter 3: The desert fight**

"I thought of a plan earlier, based on the limited source of information we have about the demonata, I am confident it will work," says Mark.

We are currently on our way to the Australian desert. We are only a hundred or so kilometres away now. I am sitting in a jet with the rest of the mages, including Dervish who is determined to take part this time. I would say this is a very bad time for him to fighting the demonata, I don't think he's fully recovered, and this will be the hardest fight yet.

The werewolves are in a separate jet, with a few members of the lambs and Prae Athim. The second plane is following us, and there is also another craft ahead of our own with all of Mark's men on board.

"So how are we going to do this?" Asks Dervish.  
>"Drop in, kill the demons, and then find the mage keeping this damn window open," I say confidently. Dervish rolls his eyes "it won't be that simple, the demons will have kilometres of land, we'll have to fight through <em>thousands,<em> and the demons we encounter will keep getting stronger."

"Maybe" says Mark loudly "you should listen to my plan."  
>"Alright, go ahead Mark," says Dervish.<br>"We have planned to drop a H bomb right in the centre of the demonata force, it should kill all the demons, leaving the window, or tunnel, with no guards."

"What!" I shout "you can't nuke demons, it won't work, they're creatures of magic!"  
>"I don't care if they're creatures of magic, nothing survives a H bomb." Confirms Mark stubbornly.<br>"Only magic can kill the demonata!"  
>"I have seen firsthand that, that's not entirely true. Do you know how much energy is released from a H bomb? Thousands of degrees, for kilometres in all directions, the demons closest to the explosion will be vaporised."<p>

I'm about to argue with Mark, it sounds crazy, trying to fight the demonata using soldiers and human weapons. The demonata are the creatures of nightmares. Beasts from a universe of horrors, a whole universe of hell. Demons are all rage, hate and instinct. They come here to kill, to cause as much suffering and human death as possible. They hate most of their own kind.

"Grubbs" say Dervish grabbing my attention "the demons around the crossing aren't masters, they're just familiars. The bomb will kill them, it's not too late yet, some will be stronger, if any do survive, it'll be the ones next to the window, or tunnel."

"Ok" says Mark "as long as everyone agrees, we'll drop the bomb and then deploy you a few minutes after."

I look around the jet. At Dervish, Bec, Meera and Kirrilli. They all nod in agreement. I don't know how this is going to work out. If the nuke works, and actually kills the demons surrounding the crossing then it'll all be about time. We need to be dropped in as soon as the nuke has gone off, before the demonata come flooding through the window, or tunnel.

"Hold on everyone," says Mark "the H bomb will be dropped shortly, and we'll try to deploy you all as close to the crossing as possible, and as soon as possible."  
>"Dervish... I think you should stay here." I say, knowing that's it's pointless to argue with him.<br>"What; and let you have all the fun?"  
>"But you haven't recovered."<br>"I have been fighting the demonata since before you were born, I'll be fine Grubbs."

"Well, I suggest you decide who goes and who stays before we reach our destination" suggests Mark. I glance up and look around, "everyone coming?" I ask, though I doubt anyone will opt out. I look at Kirrilli, the only disciple who is likely to sit out the fight. "What!" He says, sounding genuinely offended at my discrete suggestion. "Nothing" I say and hide a smile. In my experience, Kirilli has always had some backbone at least.

"Ok, the bomb will be dropped very shortly, get ready for deployment, parachutes on." Orders Mark. "Due to the high levels of ionising radiation, my men will _not_ be accompanying you for this mission. It's up to you Grubbs, whether you take your werewolf pack, but I need a decision as soon as possible."

I plan on answering straight away, but I pause to think about it. The radiation will be of no danger to me and the mages, we will protect ourselves subconsciously. I feel like answering yes, the werewolves are creatures of magic. They're not humans but they're not mages either, I'm not sure what to do.

"Grubbs?" Asks Mark.  
>"I don't know, this is a sort of unexpected problem, I didn't know about the bomb."<br>"Unexpected problems occur all the time."  
>"Ok. I'll take them, we'll need them, I'll try to shield them."<p>

"Ok, get ready." Mark says. After a few seconds the plane shakes violently, several people cry out and we are all knocked off our seats and shaken around the plane. "What the hell was that?" Asks Meera, her eyes wide.  
>"Are we under attack?" Asks Bec.<p>

"No," says Mark shaking his head "that was the shockwave from the bomb. You have one minute to get ready, we have the space of a few seconds to get you out the plane, and in the right place."  
>Everyone is suddenly in a hurry as they put on their parachutes. I change my form to a more lupine look, and then put on my own parachute.<p>

The side opens, and a gush of wind as strong as a tornado blows into the jet. Strong enough to push me off my feet and push me against the other side of the plane. I wait a few seconds and then walk forward as if the wind isn't even there .I crack my knuckles, and let energy crackle around my fists.

"On my command," says Mark "and don't activate your parachute until you're close to the ground. You need to get there quickly, before several demons have the chance to get through."

"So... we just jump out?" Asks Bec uneasily.  
>"Yes, you'll be fine" says Meera. Bec stares over the edge, looking especially uneasy. The concept for her must be especially scary. I was feeling uneasy myself up to a few seconds ago. No I'm in a more werewolf form the concept doesn't seem scary anymore.<p>

"Okay, when I say go, be ready... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... GO!"  
>I charge forward in one great leap.<p>

I've only done something like this once before, and last time I didn't have a parachute, I wonder if I can fly here? Doesn't matter, I have a parachute and I'm having a great time falling. The rush of the air, and the weightlessness, the feel of falling. That's the best part, this is really fun, I haven't had a thrill like this in a long time.

Even as a werewolf this is fun. The great part about being a werewolf right now, is that I can enjoy the fall and look forward to the fight. I'd never look forward to fight while completely human. I think about things slightly differently as a werewolf. Rather more optimistically I suppose, the down side is that it makes me cocky and a little arrogant. Then again, it's better that than hiding my true power, and cowering from the fights.

I enjoy the fall for as long as it lasts, which isn't long, we must have flown in low. I look down, I see the ground so suddenly and activate my parachute in a panic. Those around me take the cue and activate their parachutes too. I realise it's a little early, but I was startled as seeing the ground so suddenly.

It doesn't look like ground, it isn't what I'm expecting. Isn't a desert supposed to orange and yellow? The colour of sand. But what I'm seeing is a misty white colour. We are in the desert right? But this doesn't look at all right, it's not the right colour. But it's not the colour of anything I recognise, what sort of ground is misty white? I can also see several patches of black.

Are we even in the right place? I start to panic, thinking we've been dropped in the wrong location. However it's not a desert down there, we must have been dropped thousands of kilometres from the place we're supposed to be in. How is it possible to make such a mistake? It just isn't. Surely we new where the demons were, surely we could even see them if we flew in low overhead.

I think that maybe the ground could have changed. Is it web? I think, and feel anger boiling up inside me. I flex my fingers and growl. But isn't Lord Loss part of every attack anyway. I suppose the window has been open for a long time, maybe Lord Loss has covered the ground in webs.

We close in from above. I can see the window now, and it is a window rather than a tunnel. A big green patch of light, quite big, and also there are no demons. There are however several patches of black imposed on the misty white ground. I look around, and these patches are for as far as I can see.

There is one person below me. They hit the ground and see the parachute fall down onto the ground. A few seconds and I touch down onto the ground, my parachute collecting into a heap behind. I see dervish is standing in front of himself untangling himself from the parachute.

I look down at the ground, my attention diverted from the window, as I stare in fascination at the ground. I tap in with my foot, it's hard, solid. Suddenly I realise what it is. The ground... it's glass.

"Uh" says Dervish looking ahead "no demons." The others begin to touch down, and I look at the window wondering why the demons haven't started to pour through.

Then a green lizard head pokes through the window experimentally. It looks around and focuses its attention on us. It hisses and comes charging through. "You were wrong" I growl in my wolf voice.

I'm still attached to my parachute. Before Dervish can act I animate his parachute and send it flying at the demon. The parachute hits and I wrap it around the demon. I tighten it, planning on crushing the beast to death.

Then the parachute is blown apart and the demon is free. It raises it's one of its clawed feet and fires a bolt of magic. It sails straight past Dervish and me and hits someone behind me. Uh! It's a strong one. I fire a bolt of magic straight back at the demon. The beast recoils, thrown back a pace.

The beast cries angrily and returns fire. The bolt hits a shield in front of me. The creature tries again, I block effortlessly. Then the demon is hit with an ark of lightening.

We have this thing badly outnumbered. Though as soon as I think we have this fight covered, another lizard comes through the window and then another. "Uh!" I say looking at the other two. Then another figure emerges from the window. This one is huge, three times _my_ height. It has two huge fists with fire surrounding them. "Ah; what!" I complain.

The beast roars and then they all charge at us, firing their bolts of magic. I block the one heading for me and pounce forward grabbing the beast's foot. I sent a powerful electric shock through the creature, it roars at me, and it's skin bursts in several places.

The demon starts to heal. I grab it's throat and start to dig my claws into the flesh. Suddenly I'm thrown back, I feel like a huge fist has punched me. It's not the fire demon, so it must be a magic blast from the lizard beast. I charge back at it paralysing it with a spell. In shakes, the maximum movement it can do. In a few seconds it will break the spell.

I reach the beast and bite it's throat. I bite down hard and I feel the beast going limp. I let go, and the demon falls down dead. One down I think, looking up. But there's already two more to replace it.

Then I hear a howl in the distance. My pack! Well they're a little late.

The fire beast lunges at me with one of its huge fiery fists. I concentrate on the beast and it's rather slow attack. Still, I do _not_ want to get hit by that demon, it could do some series damage. I extinguish the flames, and then realise the fist is still heading straight for me. I reach out and grab the fist, stopping it with magic, rather than my own strength.

The beast just roars and then throws it's other fist at me. I concentrate on my surroundings and draw magic in from the air. Concentrating on the fist I catch it in mid air with magic. As if a massive invisible hand has caught the fist. Then flip the best over. Using the hand I'd caught with magic, I use a mighty telekinetic push, to flip the beast over and slam it down onto the glass ground.

I roar at the fiery monster. The beast roars back and two pillars of fire come flying at me. I use magic to deflect them, and send heading of in two opposite directions.

Suddenly a bolt of magic hits my back. I stagger forward and trip over my own feet as my back explodes in pain. Those damn lizards! I jump up and create a barrier in front of me and turn to face the lizard creature. As I look around I realise the fight isn't going too well, the mages have found themselves rather evenly matched by the lizard demons, and more keep arriving. The werewolves have almost reached us though, but the fight for us will only get harder.

Another bolt of magic is fired at me, but it just harmlessly hits the barrier. I focus on the magic inside me and draw on the power in the air. I point my hand at the lizard and yellow white streams of magic pour from my finger tips. The streams of magic encircle the demon and start to burn it. This is not fire, the demon has no where enough power to neutralise my attack. The demon dies within a few seconds and I focus on the remaining ones.

Everyone else is stuck fighting the lizard demons. They aren't as powerful as a mage, but they are a lot more powerful than a lesser demon, more powerful than we are used two. I focus on the rest, and start to drain power from the charged air, ready for a powerful stream of magic. I point my hand out again. The streams of magic pour from my fingertips and I send each stream at a different demon. With the mages now free to attack relentlessly, while the demons try to fend off my attack, they all die in a few seconds.

Everyone looks up at me in surprise, and they all manage a smile. "I always said you were powerful Grubbs," laughs Dervish. It's a minor victory for us, as more keep coming through the window, but now the werewolves have reached us, we have a lot of backup. It's time to increase our attack, and make a push for the window. Whatever is keeping this thing open, must be in the demonata realm.

The fire beast gets to its feet, and I focus my attention on it. I'm aware out of the corner of my eye another one, coming stumbling through the window. Damnit! I'm not sure which demon I prefer, the powerful lizards or the giant fire beats.

A werewolf charges and then jumps to a staggering height. The lupine lands on the fire beast's shoulders. The creature shakes around but the werewolf digs it's claws into the monster's shoulders and then latches it's jaws to the back of the beast's neck.

In outrage the monster tries pick of the werewolf savagely biting it's neck. The giant hand reaches the werewolf and I extinguish the flames. But the beast still picks of the werewolf as if taking a flea of it's skin. The fire beast throws the lupine down onto the ground. Before the werewolf makes impact I catch it in a net of magic to break its fall. I let it then fall safely to the ground, and it lands unhurt, and charges back at the demon.

I charge in the help my pack. I extinguish the flames on one of the fists and make a grab for it. I sink my claws into the fist and hold onto tightly. I tug on the beast's arm, and it roars at me in outrage. It throws a punch at me with its free fist. I generate a barrier and the beast's attack bounces of my shield.

Several more werewolves throw themselves at the beast. There's a werewolf attacking each of it's legs. Another jumps and clings onto it's side. Another werewolf jumps and lands on it' other side. The fist in my grip almost breaks free. I harden my grasp and use magic to cling onto the other fist, keeping it stationary with a hand of magic.

I concentrate on keeping its arms still. Now I have a hold of both of its arms, my werewolves are free to relentlessly attack the fire demon. Another werewolf jumps high and lands on the back of it's neck. The demon gives out an almighty roar and shakes about, but I have hold of it's fists, there's nothing it can do.

I hear a yelp as a werewolf is punched by the other fire, there's nothing I can do about that one at the moment. The lupines and mages will have to keep it at bay until I've killed this one.

The werewolf on it's neck digs it's claws in and swings round. It bites down hard onto the demons throat. Then flames start to appear around the werewolf. I put out the flames before the lupine gives up, and it goes back to attacking it's throat. I'm struggling to keep control of so many things at once. Just to make that even more complicated, the fist I'm holding onto re-ignites.

I growl and lower my head. I close my eyes and extinguish the flames again, concentrating very hard. If something else happens I won't be able to stop it! This is getting very complicated. I feel a few drops of water hit me. But then the scent reaches my nose and I realise it's not water, it's demonic blood. I feel the giant fist go limp in hands, just as all the things I was concentrating on cease to be a problem.

I open my eyes and let go. The fire demon falls to the ground.

I turn to face the rest of the demons. The lizards have formed a swarm now, if it carries on like this we're going to lose the fight. The werewolves have come in to change to the tides. They've started to engage the lizards. The swarm of lizards are now fighting a swarm of wereewolves. Although they can fire bolts of magic, my wolves are very fast, they reach the lizards quickly and tear them to pieces.

A bolt of magic hits me, and forces me back a step and the pain screws up my concentration. I charge forward, creating a barrier to run behind. It takes a few seconds to make some adjustments to the barrier, to make it one sided. Then I fire two quick bolts through it at the lizard. I receive one in return but it just hits the barrier.

The demon is pushed back and thrown off balance by my attack. I reach it at a high speed and throw out one hand in front of me. I start to run past it, my claws catching its throat. There's nothing stopping my momentum, and my claws rip straight through.

I turn my attention to the fire demon, that's a bigger problem, I just hope they stop coming through the window.

I see one of my werewolves lying on the ground, not moving. I check to see if it's alive. Well, it's still breathing, but I don't have time to tend to its injuries. Quickly I use magic to levitate it, and move it clear of the battle.

I charge at the fire demon. I fire a bolt of magic at it. It takes a step back, startled. I jump and fly towards it's throat. I dig my claws into its right shoulder and lean back. I make the claws on my other hand glow with heat and then swing back forwards. My claws rip into the demon's throat. I clench my hand into a fist, and then pull my hand back out.

I'm hit by a gush of deeonic blood and a huge hand grabs me. I'm picked off the beast and the hand starts to squeeze. In panic I try to create a barrier but it's rather complicated. I need to create a cacoon shield, that matches my body. I don't have time; several bones break, completely startling me with the pain.

I can't think, and don't act when the beast throws me to the ground. I react though, my magic momentarily taking control and breaking my fall. I hit the glass with little force.

The beast lifts it's huge fist into the air. I start to heal my injuries. Working fast, but it hurts more. I don't know what to do about the beast. With a frustrated growl I catch the fire demon's punch with magic, and throw it's arm back. Then I start to work on my injuries again.

After several seconds I get to my feet and start heading towards the fire demon. Its bleeding heavily, but refusing to die. I put my arm out in front of me and take aim. I fire two quick bursts of magic at its throat. The head is thrown back, and then falls off completely, a shower of blood coming from the headless beast.

We can't keep on like this, I've got to get to the mage! I think quickly, there's no one here. Either they're at a distance or on the other side. I take a few steps towards the window drawing in power from the air. Another lizard starts to emerge, I release the power and send the demon flying back through the window.

I set off at a sprint I need to get through, the demons are going to flood us. I keep an eye on the window as I approach. Another lizard tries to come through before I reach but I blast that one back too.

I close in and come crashing through the window.

The first thing I notice is the one thing I didn't think through. I'm now, extremely badly outnumbered. There's more demons on this side of course. They're bunched up into a tight pack group behind the window.

First things first, I need to protect myself immediately. I'm greeted with a bombardment of magic bolts. I hold a strong shield in front of me and strafe to the side, gathering power in my other hand. However most of my strength is required to keep this shield going, it almost broke a moment ago.

I'm now facing the window side on. I keep dashing to the side trying to dodge the lizard's bolts of magic. I draw in power at the same. I have one hand in front of me keeping the shield going, and a hand behind me taking in energy.

I convert the energy to a line of magic and swing my arm. Sending a sharp line of white light at the demons. The magic hits, and some of them are cut in half, a few others are injured. Several demons down in one hit, good. However I really need to find that mage.

I look down at the ground and it looks back up at me.

I blink. The ground is black and covered in eyes. I look down in surprise, but it's not really that much of a shock. I've encountered things like that before, it's only to be expected. However I now feel conscious of every step I make

It's now that I take in the look of this place. The ground in black, and watches everything. The sky is red, and filled with sky demons. The whole place is rather dark.

There are a lot of dead demons too. Most of them look they were burnt badly. There are few that look like they've been killed by other demons too. The living demons around the window are mainly lizards, and a few of those massive fire demons. There are others too, impatiently waiting their turn.

I turn all of my attention over to keeping a strong shield in front of me. I take several hits but my barrier holds. A few lose interest and dive through the window. However I gave everyone a little break when I first came through.

I need to find the mage. I scan the background. Far of in the distance I see what looks like a large army of demonata. They're are standing in a huge group. However they're standing their ground. They aren't heading for the window.

The smell of demonata is thick in the air. I can also demonic blood quite close. At my feet in fact, I'm crushing the eyes as I step on them. I take in a deep breath to see if I can pick up the scent of human among the huge sea of demons.

I can't pick anything up, the smell of demons and blood is too strong and is over powering any human scent.

However I think I can see a figure around the army of demonata, in the distance. It could be a demon of course, but it may be who I'm looking for.

I sprint over to the army in the distance. I'm aware I'm being followed, the demons are not ignoring my presence. Thankfully most have turned their attention back to the window, but a few are out to kill me.

I ignore my pursuers until a bolt of magic hits my back and sends me sprawling onto the ground. I find myself lying on the ground staring at eyes that stare straight back at me. Is this whole realm alive? Is this some part of giant demon that sees everything? That would make it the biggest demon I've encountered. Well, if it is a demon, it seems rather inert.

I get up and face my attackers. It's two lizard things, and they run faster than I thought they could. The first one is almost upon me. I jump and it runs straight underneath me. I land and grab hold of its tail. I sent a very strong electric current through it's body. It collapses, its legs sprawling across the ever watchful ground.

I keep a hold of it's tail and raise my other arm high above my head. Then I bring it down and stab the creature in the back of the head with my claws. Blood gushes out of the wound; its dead.

Another bolt hits me, and I groan taking a step back, three ribs broke that time.

I punch the creature full on, with a huge telekinetic fist. The demon is sent flying back, and I sprint after it. The beast lands bewildered on its back, and I raise a hand into the air. I bring down the punch and my claws dig into the demon's stomach. Then I jerk my hand to the side, cutting the whole thing open.

I growl at the two corpses in triumph and then start running back at the large group of demons.

It takes me two minutes to reach the army of demons. The figure comes into view. Thankfully it's the human. For a moment I thought it was going to be extremely difficult to find them.

She sees me coming and tries to slink back through the ranks of demonata. But I'm far too fast for her.

Before I reach, she throws a blast of magic at me. It harmlessly hits a barrier in front of me. However the whole demon army starts to charge at me. Shit! But I'm not going to let her escape, we need to get this damn window closed. I jump up high and fire an ark of lightning at her. She collapses to the ground.

I focus on her, I can't see her because she's shielded from view by the demon army, which look like lions. I charge forward irritated. I'm upon the lions, and I sweep my arm, and two are sent flying back. These demons are weaker than the ones by the window, that's why they're hanging back, they are outcompeted by the others.

I lash out with my claws at another lion thing. I catch it's throat and rip it open, but its not down. I fire a bolt of magic at another. However this is hopeless, I can't fight through all of them.

A demon bits down on my arm. OW! These things have huge teeth. I blast the demon with a magic shockwave. The demon is blown apart and the teeth in my arm shatter. I strafe to the side and grab a demon's throat. I squeeze hard feeling its flesh give way .I throw the beast to the side and then charge forward creating a barrier in front of me.

All the demons in front of me a knocked aside by my moving barrier. After I've built up some momentum, I jump as high as I can, and sail safely over some of the demons. I land near the women.

She fires a bolt of magic at me, it breaks through my barrier and hits me back me, my lungs igniting in pain. I stumble back into two demons that each bite onto one of my shoulders. I ignore the pain in my shoulders and focus on the mage. I throw her up in the air with a blast of magic, she screams and thrashes out, but there's nothing she can do about being thrown up into the air.

Then I throw her back down as hard as I can. She slams into the ground with huge force. Straight away I know she's dead. The entire realm reacts when she hits the ground. The whole realm shakes.

I wince in pain as the demons that bit me are shaken from side to side. I send a shockwave of magic through both of them, shattering their teeth, and blowing their heads apart. I'm now as prickled as a hedge hog, covered in fangs and fragments of teeth. These lion demons are huge, some of those teeth have penetrated bone. I focus on the teeth fragments and use magic to remove them. Then heal the injuries immediatly.

I turn to face the window. It's going to close! I need to move, now!

I run as fast as I can sending blasts of magic at the demons blocking my path, sending flying out of my way. The ground keeps shaking wildly, the eyes blinking furiously, and I think every eye is focused on me.

I change my form slightly, becoming for werewolf, making my legs slightly bigger, I direct all my power to my legs, I'm running impossibly fast, but I'm running out of time quickly. The window starts to become a swirl of colours and seems to be shimmering at the edges.

The ground shakes wildly again and I'm almost thrown to ground. I kick off, attempting to fly. It doesn't work, but I've found a new method of moving. Every few moments I kick off the ground, and fly forward for several metres, before kicking off the ground again.

I approach the window. There are demons coming back through to this side. I start to store up power. I'm going to need to blast through, to get past the demons surrounding it. The window has started to pulsate quickly, flashing and changing its colours.

After a few seconds the window is flashing rapidly. It looks as though it's about to blast itself to pieces. I release to power I stored up to throw the demons out to way, and hope to explosion doesn't somehow destroy the window. Then the shimmering light fills my view, and I fly through the window.

I land heavily onto the glass, and roll over repeatedly as if I had jumped out of a car onto the road. When I stop I turn to face the window. Now pulsating so fast it's shimmering. After a few seconds the window disappears.


	3. Chapter 4 and 5

**Chapter 4: Aftermath**

"Grubbs!" Yells Bec, who is standing right next to where I'm lying on the glass. She's standing close to where the window was, and there's a dead lizard demon either side of her. I think she was trying to fight her way over to the window.

There are a lot of dead demons littering the ground. In this region they cover the glass and the mysterious black patches, which look like shadows, with no caster. My werewolves are all over the place. They are making one _hell_ of a racquet. On first glance it looks like most have obtained at least one injury, and several will have some serious wounds, I may have lost a few, this is the biggest fight we've come across.

"That was reckless Grubbs!" Yells Dervish over the noise. I had just made myself slightly more human, and I almost feel sheepish. I shake off that feeling immediately and start to feel a little angry, after all, I just destroyed the window. "You got through with _seconds_ to spare Grubbs, and you went in with no cover."

I open my mouth to answer him but I'm starting to get a headache from the noise. "Argh! Will you lot just _shut up_!" Yeah! Very useful, because they understand speech perfectly, they were human once after all. So naturally they can understand what I'm saying.

I revert back to a more wolf state and then roar at my pack, not a request or even a demand, a pure aggressive noise, _quiet or you die!_

The noise dies down to nothing after just a few seconds, and the only noise is my wolves padding around on the hard ground. "Well, glad that's over" says Meera "they were giving me a headache." The she laughs and adds "I'm glad the fight is over too."

"Good work Grubbs!" Says a voice, and it's Kirilli,I wasn't even sure he'd survive the fight.  
>"Thanks, at least someone appreciates what I did," I growl and then stare at Dervish.<br>"We were just worried about you." Says Dervish "you could of been killed instantly in there, against so many demons... or it could of been another trap.

"It could of been the end of the world, it could of been anything, I'm just focusing on what actually happened." I reply. I don't feel what I did was too reckless. In the end I got the window closed, so how bad of an idea was it? Besides it wasn't even an idea or a choice, we were struggling to get anywhere near the window, it was more of a leap of faith, going all in.

"I didn't think you were still alive," says Bec "we should of gone in as a team." I'm about to argue with Bec but I don't want to, she doesn't make me angry. "Your right" I say simply "But... it wasn't an option, we were caught here, making no ground."

"Ok, this is enough." Says Meera lightly "we're all still alive and we've got the window closed; and it's mostly thanks to Grubbs."

I would have preferred another argument, than an embarrassment like that. However I'm reminded of something. The magic has been fading for some time, but there's still some left, and I have a pack to attend too.

I howl to summon my pack. Most come immediately, a few are unharmed, some have minor injuries. There are a few that come limping, or with unusual slowness. There are a few that don't move at all, and are so dismayed that they can't respond to my summon that they start howling in anguish, making noise again.

I need to work quickly. I ignore all the ones that responded, they have some injuries, but they will heal in a few days. Maybe a few weeks considering they seem to have fractures. However the priority are the ones that can't move.

I rush over to one of my werewolves are lay a hand on its broken limb. I channel energy, willing it to heal, however I'm not good at it, I'm going to lose some werewolves. "Grubbs?" Says Bec. I turn to face her, "let me... I used to be a healer, in my time."

I let Bec work on the werewolves, but we don't have much time so I rush over to another of the injured. I concentrate on the gashes and cuts. Heal them first, then try to mend some of the serious breaks. The wolf whines, a whistling noise that I can associate with a dog.

Bec does a brilliant job, but we've lost one. Another is badly injured. The minor injuries are from the lizards. The bolts of magic that have caused tissue damage, fractures and cuts. The major injuries are from the fire demons. Those almighty punches have killed one lupine, and cause bone shattering and other lethal damage.

I go to stand with the others. Bec stays behind healing the werewolves. There's not much magic in the air, however this window was open for a long time and the magic isn't fading fast, it's as if it's reflecting off something and coming back.

I'm amused that I overshadow everyone, and have to look down to see the tops of their heads. Dervish and Meera are talking. Kirilli looks a little bewildered. He keeps looking around nervously and twitching his muscles. Pulling the three fingers on his right hand into a fist and relaxing, and tapping his feet on the glass.

I look down to the ground. It has been bugging me the whole time. I haven't had time to fully think about it, but now I'm really confused. Why is it... glass?

"Dervish?" I ask, I know I'm interrupting, but I just need to know. "Dervish, the ground... I thought this was a desert?"  
>"Ah, that's the effect of the bomb Grubbs. Glass is made from sand, what's the desert floor made of?"<p>

"Oh!" I say looking at the ground in amazement, "That's... pretty cool!"  
>"The intense heat from the bomb has turned a section of this desert into glass," he continues.<br>"What about those black patches... they look like... shadows."  
>"The remains of the demons close to the blasé" chuckles Dervish "and you thought the bomb would be useless!"<p>

I growl quietly in irritation, but I don't stay angry for long, I'm still amazed. "But why just a shadow?" I ask in bewilderment. "The heat here was so intense that the demons were vaporised, and the carbon atoms were beamed onto the ground."

Bec walks over to us in a few minutes. "I've done my best to heal the werewolves," she says.  
>"Thanks," I say, and hold out my hand. She gestures to my hand. I get her point, huge sharp claws, and covered in demonic blood, I don't want to be anywhere near it, but it's attached to my body.<p>

I make my arm human. Then she shakes my hand with a smile. It's my gesture of good will, as I'm aware of the unseen flow. My memories are now hers, my experiences shared in an instant of perfect trust.

We wait for several minutes. Until a another noise drowns out the muted howls and barks of my pack. Two dots appear in the distance.

My werewolves go crazy as the planes land. The noise of the mass rushing through the air, getting louder. Then the scraping of wheels against hard ground. The huge approaching dark objects. Then their own howls of distress are drowned out.

Everyone is silent, although it isn't scary to us, like it was to my wolves, it was bloody loud.

A door opens and a figure steps out. He's dressed in so much gear, head to toe is what looks like a space suit.

"Everyone in quickly!" Says Mark in a muffled voice "werewolves in the second plane." Mark makes a gesture with his hand referring to the other plane.

**Chapter 5: A short stay**

Me, Bec, Meera, Dervish and Mark are sitting in the back of the plane. Mark usually pilots the plane, but he's feeling tired, and he must be, he doesn't usually let anyone else pilot his jet.

I changed into human form, and also changed into a t shirt and jeans. Now I'm human I'm seeing that Dervish and Bec had a point. What I did was reckless, I entered the demonata universe on my own. I was up against hundreds of strong demonata, it was only that they lost interest in me that I survived. Though, if I hadn't gone in, we wouldn't have won the fight.

Bec seems fine, she's a healer anyway. Everyone's shaken a little bit, but no one has sustained any permanent injuries. Kirilli hasn't lost any more fingers.

"While we're in the regional area," says Mark "we'll make landing into Sidney, get a hotel and place for the werewolves to stay." He looks around, "well, does anyone object?"  
>"No, I could really do with a rest after that."<br>"Yes." Says Bec.  
>"Of course, but will we make it in time for the other window?" Asks Dervish.<br>"Just about," says Mark.

Night has just fallen, which is strange, as it was night not long ago. That's what comes from travelling around the globe. I don't mind, I could do with the darkness to help me rest.

Mark makes several calls to disciples. He doesn't just need to book several hotel rooms. He needs to land two private jets, and get a pack of werewolves into a densely populated city.

After he has finished he sits back and yawns. "I could really do with some rest," he says "try to take the radiation off my mind, hopefully I got away without permanent genetic damage."  
>"I wonder if my werewolves are ok." I think aloud.<br>"Unless you had any direct intervention Grubbs, then they will not have escaped without some damage." Answers Mark.  
>"Well," I say and then laugh, "they won't live that long anyway."<p>

"Nice positive outlook there Grubbs, keep up the spirit." Says Mark amused.  
>"Ah, shut it."<p>

The whole plane shudders as it hits the runway.

The side door opens, and the roaring sound of the second jet fills the air. "Ok," says Mark "follow me, I'll get through all the security."

We all follow Mark in a tight group. Even as he gets out of the plane, he's already making another phone call. "No, we can't," a pause, "no, it's not about what's easiest for us," another short pause, "no, we can't, they need to eat, and they need some space to run around in." There's another pause, but I can't hear the voice on the other end. "Yeah, but so what? We need to do something, get them somewhere to stay."

We approach a door, and immediately Mark requests to talk to one security officer in particular. We wait where we are and watch Mark take the officer aside and have a private conversation. This makes the other officers suspicious, but they're still oblivious to who we are. After one minute the security officer talks down his walkie-talkie.

The manager comes down in a few minutes. He gives the all clear and lets us all through. I smile at the bewildered expressions on the officers' faces. We saunter through the rest of the security, into the almost empty airport.

Soon we hit the night air, which is surprisingly not cold. I look around the city, it's rather dense. Still has wide roads and streets, and buildings everywhere. Most of the buildings were high, towering up into the night sky. There are lights everywhere, it may be night, but the illumination is almost as good as if it were the day.

We soon arrive at the hotel. We hang around in the lobby while Mark goes up to the counter. This place looks posh, maybe a five star hotel. Mark has a long conversation with the receptionist. He gets confused very quickly, and he calls the manager. She comes down quickly and Mark calls her aside, and has another secret conversation.

"Dervish?" I ask.  
>"Yes, Grubbs."<br>"How many people are working for the disciples?"  
>"Do you mean mages, or official contacts?"<p>

I laugh, at his words. "Official contacts." I say.  
>"We have people everywhere. It's a huge organisation, the mages only make up a small part of the disciples. W have people in a variety of positions. We mainly have people in important official roles."<p>

I look at Mark talking to the hotel manager. In a few minutes he's finished, and has some rooms for us. Amazing, I think. It's like we're part of an intelligence agency, we can walk into a hotel, make a few specific phone calls, and with the right contacts, have a room to stay.

Mark walks back over to us. "We have three rooms between us, we'll have to compromise on how we divide them. I'll be taking a room, if anyone objects, then you're free to stay in the room too."  
>"It's all right Mark, you can have a room to yourself," says Dervish.<br>Mark hands Dervish two keys, and then heads off up the stairs.

"Two rooms, four people, easily settled." Says Dervish, and then he looks at me, "you weren't about to suggest you take one of the rooms to yourself were you?"  
>"Of course not," I say, however I was, I always do, but a lot of the time we have enough rooms for us to have one each anyway.<p>

An hour later and I'm sitting on a bed. I look at my hand, I grow and shrink my claws. "What are you doing?" Asks Bec who is watching me curiously.  
>"I don't know," I say looking at my claws, and then I shrink them. "I would say I'm trying to get better control over my wolf state."<p>

"How much do you know about the disease?" She asks.  
>"Um, nothing really, only that my sister and half brother both caught it." Bec holds up her hand and looks at it. "I have it too, back in my time... it's when the curse began."<br>"Oh, you should tell me about it some time."

"Will I catch it?" She asks.  
>"I wouldn't know, it's completely random, I'm sure you know more than me."<br>"Well, you caught it... but you can control it."  
>"Are you worried about lycanthropy?"<p>

Bec frowns. She tries to pronounce lycanthropy, and fails. I guess the word didn't translate. Her language probably has no such word. Whenever that happens the word comes through in its original language.

"You mean catching the curse? I think... like you... I could control it." 


	4. Chapter 6: Lycanthropic attack

Chapter 6: Lycanthropic attack

I am standing in the middle of a forest. Surrounded by werewolves, their howls piecing the night. I'm not afraid of these werewolves because they work for me. They treat me as their leader, because this is my pack. I am no human, but I'm no wolf either. I am both, a half werewolf, with the ability to be a full werewolf, strong enough to lead this pack.

I listen to the howls, and then among them I hear a scream. It's somehow quiet and loud at the same time, it's definitely quieter than the howls, but stands out as if the howls are nothing but soft whispers. I ignore the sound, but then I hear it again, it pieces through all the other noises.

The forest starts to fade. It's just my imagination, the trees elongating and then start fading, the howls of the werewolves becoming silent, and the feel of the ground beneath my feet disappears. I wait a few moments and then open my eyes. The dream wasn't important, but what is it that woke me up? I can't remember what I was dreaming anymore, something about werewolves possibly?

I stay lying where I am for a few seconds. I remember hearing a scream, quiet, but definitely I heard it. The scream woke me up. I wonder where it came from? Are we in trouble? I concentrate for a few seconds. There's no magic in the air, there can't be any demons around. I relax, however surely someone is in trouble. It's dark in my room, but quickly I change my eyes and ears.

The room becomes much lighter, but everything is a dull grey. Dervish and Kirilli are both asleep, and I can hear their breathing perfectly. Then I hear the scream again, it's quiet, but to my ears it's rather loud, and it's coming from a different room.

I jump out of bed. Quickly I put on my clothes and rush to the door. Suddenly I feel pain in wrist. I look down to see a cut where I felt the pain, it's not bleeding much, but it hurts, and I wonder how it happened, it's very recent. Damn! I must caught it on my nails. I look down at my hand, my eyes straining to see, or ... claws perhaps? Yes I have claws. "Have you got a problem wolf?" I mutter to myself, "you want to get out?"

I growl to myself. It must be close to full moon, my wolf half it stronger during this time of the lunar month. Still however, it's fully under my control, allowing me to shift between my two forms, and stay anywhere in between. I hold my hand out in front of me, and stare at my claws in concentration. Come on! Contract! Rather stubbornly they slowly shrink, and are replaced with finger nails.

I hear the noise again. Quieter than before. It sounds like someone talking in their sleep; no, not talking, moaning about something, like someone having a nightmare. Well, it's the room next to this one, so... it's Bec.

I guess it's to be expected she'd suffer from nightmares, after everything she's been through. I pause with my hand on the door handle. Should I really go to check on her? Surely she'll be fine, but ... she sounds like she's awake, and she sounds like she's suffering from something. Maybe I should go and see if she's ok. Hasn't she woken up Meera? No. She's still rather quiet.

I open the door and step out into the corridor. I take a few steps to her and Meera's room. I pause at the door for a few seconds. Staring at the grey door, a rather bright grey. I can hear her, it sounds like she's struggling with something. What could it be; now I'm driven by curiosity as well as concern.

I open the door and step in. I can her now, she's struggling, as if wrestling someone, but there' s no one there. Meera is still asleep on the other side of the room. I stare at Bec, maybe she really is just having a bad dream. She looks asleep, but she seems to be struggling, quite literally. She's putting a lot of physical effort in. She'll wake up more tired than she was when she went to bed.

She's currently sitting up, and she's acting like a python has wrapped around her and is trying to crush her. She moves her head slightly, and I can see that her eyes are open. She's awake.

I take a few steps towards her; I'm quite curious and concerned now, what's wrong with her? She keeps moving around, in her desperate struggle against nothing. She jerks from side to side, and every now and then grabs onto the sheets so hard she looks like she'll rip them. Her movements are in waves of spasms.

I look down at my hand. At the small cut on my wrist. Caused by my own claws... _claws_. I didn't means to have claws, it happens because the moon is close to full. _It's during the time of the month when the lunar power is strong; the influence over those with lycanthropy will be increased_.

My eyes widen in understanding and I drop my arm to my side. I look at Bec, I understand now. She's suffering from the curse. She's turning into a werewolf.

"Bec!" I say loudly in realisation. She's fighting against the wolf. I rush to her side, and she looks up when she hears my voice. I hear the breathing of Meera change, she's woken up. Bec looks at me, her face full of concentration, "Grubbs," she says.

I hear Meera shuffle, her breathing increases in pace until it's normal. She'll be able to hear Bec now, I wonder if she'll work it out straight away. "Bec?" I hear her say, "what's going on?"  
>I rush to the wall and turn the light on. "Argh!" I complain instantly. The light it's so strong it hurts. My ultra sensitive lupine eyes are stinging under the strong light.<p>

"Grubbs?" I hear Meera say. My eyes get used to the new light conditions. I look at Meera.  
>"Bec's turning into a werewolf." I say. Meera still loos confused, she looks like she's irritated at being woken up. "What?" She asks.<br>"Bec. She's turning into a werewolf!" I say, loudly this time, and then regret it, realising we're in a hotel, and shouting werewolf, is not a good idea.

After a few seconds Meera seems to be understanding what's going on. I look at Meera, fear creeps into her eyes. "You think she's changing?" She asks, looking at Bec. "Get Dervish now!" Says Meera too loudly.

I rush back to my own room to find that Dervish is still asleep. Typical of him to sleep through all this noise. I glance over to Kirilli, he's asleep too, well, I might as well let him sleep. I focus on Dervish again and nudge him slightly, and he rolls over. I'm about to roll him of the bed when I pick up the change in his breathing pattern. He's woken up.

"Grubbs?" He asks, sounding a little bored. He's not facing me, he's lying face down, but he knows I'm there. Who else would wake him up in the middle of the night. Then again, not even I would do that, he must know something is wrong.

Dervish rolls over so that he's facing the ceiling. It's dark in here, the lights in the corridor and this room are off. However Meera's room is open, and the lights are on in there. So there's a little illumination. "What is it Grubbs?" He asks calmly.

I consider what to tell him. I don't want to give him too much of a shock, might give him another heart attack. However I'm not sure what can shock Dervish, certainly not an invasion of demons. So werewolves wouldn't be any trouble. Though, it's a werewolf attack that caused him to have a heart attack in the first place.

"Bec's turning into a werewolf!" I exclaim. Dervish continues to stare at the ceiling as if he didn't even hear me. He frowns "What?" He says, not posed as a question.  
>"Bec! She's turning!"<br>Derbish says nothing for a few seconds. "She's becoming a werewolf?" He asks, sounding concerned this time.

I hear a quiver in Kirilli's breathing pattern. Great, now I've woken him up too.

"Yes!" I say, this time I'm getting impatient.  
>"Has she already changed? Is Meera ok?" He asks worried.<br>I close my eyes and take a deep breath. "She hasn't changed, she's fighting off the transformation."

"You what?" Asks KIrilli. I guess the fragments of conversation he just heard don't make much sense on their own. Am I going to have to explain the situation to another half asleep person. "Transformation? What are you talking about?" He asks again.

"Oh," says Dervish "so she hasn't changed." There's only the slightest glimmer of relief in his voice. He jumps out of bed and walks calmly over to the wardrobe. "you say, she's fighting off the curse?" He asks as he puts on dressing gown. "Just like you?" I think for a moment. I suppose so, I fought of the curse... well at least in the end I won... a few times I became a werewolf.

"Wait, wait!" Says Kirilli loudly "are you just going to ignore me? What's going on?"  
>"Bec's turning into a werewolf," I say simply.<br>"Whoa, what!"  
>I think I'm just going to wait for Kirilli to get over it, and wake up.<p>

"Yes," I say "I think so. Dervish closes the wardrobe door and then he pauses for a moment. He seems to be concentrating on something. "Yes" he says, and then his eyes widen "I can hear her!"

Dervish hurries out of the room, and I quickly follow him. He pauses at the door to Meera's room. "Ah, I see what you mean, she's fighting the curse."  
>"Yes." I say in agreement. Though I can't see properly because you're blocking the doorway.<p>

"Dervish!" Exclaims Meera, as we walk into the room. "What's wrong with Bec?"  
>"Grubbs, shut the door," orders Dervish and then he turns to Meera "she's suffering from lycanthropy."<p>

"Right." She says uneasily. I already told you that! I think to myself, does it only count coming from Dervish. "She, looks like she's having an epileptic fit," she notes.

Dervish walks over to Bec. "Bec?" He asks "can you hear me?" She shows no sign that she notices anything. "Bec?"  
>"I can hear you." She says in a quiet voice.<br>"Ok, now I want you to concentrate, don't give up, if you can fight it, you can beat it."  
>She nods.<p>

The door opens, and we all turn, but it's only Kirilli. "Close the door behind you," orders Dervish. Kirilli closes the door rather absent mind idly and focuses on Bec. He looks fascinated and scared at the same time. "What's happening to her?"

"I've already told you!" I say impatiently.  
>"Well, how long does it take?"<br>"It's not that Kirilli," explains Dervish "she's fighting the transformation. Think of Grubbs, he has full control. Bec is fighting back."

"You can do it Bec," says Dervish quietly. Bec it still struggling, it looks like the wolf keeps momentarily taking control of her body. She takes a few deep breathes. "It's... strong," she says.

Bec stays in the same state for twenty minutes. Dervish and Meera are keeping her arms pinned down. Earlier she lashed out. For a few moments I thought that was it for her. That maybe she'd lost the battle. However she regained some more control. She's shaking uncontrollably though, that's why Dervish and Meera are trying to keep her still.

I'm reminded of my fight to keep control of my own body when the lycanthropy kicked in. At first it was a real battle, a complete struggle. However soon after; I discovered my true power, I unleashed the magic that I hid away within myself. Some of it, resurfaced when the wolf came. When my full power resurfaced, it was stronger than the wolf, and the wolf subsided. Now I have full control of my body. When I was pursuing the lambs, completely surrounded by werewolves, I unleashed the wolf, but kept my mind the same. Well, almost the same.

Bec's been the same for twenty minutes, and it doesn't look like she's going to change, in either direction. She'll probably be like this for an hour, maybe more, hopefully less. Seeming as she's not going to change at all I could go back to bed but... I'm too worried. I should stay here, it would seem wrong to go to sleep when Bec is like this. Everyone else is staying up, even Kirilli, but there's nothing much that we can do, other than sit and watch. And It's not a nice thing to watch.

Dervish has dealt with this before, when I was turning into a werewolf. He knows what to do... I think, I'm not sure what he can do. It's not something anyone has any experience in. There are two options when this opens. There' Lord Loss, which is _definitely_ not an option, then the lambs, which is also not an option. Besides this is different, those two options are available when someone turns into a werewolf. Usually when someone suffers from the curse, it's final, 100% fatal. I'm an anomaly, and so is Bec.

"Dervish?" I ask, "is there any spell we can use?"  
>"Do you know any werewolf suppressing spells Grubbs?"<br>"Dervish!" Cries Meera "this is serious!"  
>"No doubt about that, I was making a point. To my knowledge there is nothing else we can do. Remember Grubbs, the roots of this curse lie with demons. The only magic that we know of, that can combat this transformation is from Lord Loss. We do not have such power ourselves."<p>

"I think..." stammers Bec "I have it... under... control." Then she bares her teeth in a grimace and shudders again. "But... it's so strong, this is so hard."  
>"Just keep fighting Bec," advises Dervish "you can keep it back."<p>

"So how does this work?" Asks Kirilli.  
>"What do you mean? I presume you're asking about the curse?" I ask in return.<br>"Yes, I mean, people don't just suddenly change?"  
>"No, they do. That's the way it usually happens, people just suddenly change, usually in their sleep. At first it's just a mental change, the mind goes first, and that's usually accompanied by increased strength and speed. Then, in subsequent months some physical changes start happening. In a few months, they become fully werewolf during the full moon and previous nights. After a few more months though, they don't change back."<p>

"But Bec hasn't suddenly changed."  
>"Yes Kirlilli, we know. She's fighting it back with magic."<br>"Can all mages do that?"  
>"I don't think so, I'm sure a few werewolves happened to be mages as well, if anyone else had managed to fight off the curse, no doubt the lambs would know about them."<p>

I'm hoping that Bec will win this fight. It's not just blind hope either, I'm sure she has this under control. Perhaps if she was going to change, she would have done so by now. Of course the wolf is constantly attacking her, wearing her down. But I think Bec can keep up the fight.

The moon however is... not full yet. So tomorrow will be even harder for her. The wolf will attack with more power. I wonder if she will win in the end? Hopefully she can win the warwith her curse. It'd be a bitter end for her if she doesn't. All this fighting against the demons. We have defended several cities, and just closed a window in the desert. Bec has killed several demons, enjoyed so many victories. It'd be an ironic bitter end to succumb to the curse; the demons would then have their cunning subtle victory. In the very end, they would win, their ancient curse would prevail.

That can't happen, she has to win. I won, so why can't she? Though I know the answer to that, I'm a magician, that's why I can control my form. Bec is a mage, but a powerful one, close to my power, maybe more, most likely less. She is a mage from the past, they were more powerful, is that because of the magic in the air? Was there just more magic to use? Or were the mages themselves more powerful.

After several minutes, Bec starts to recover. Her jerky movements slow down, and then come to a stop. The uncontrollable shaking subsides. The expression of concentration leaves her face, and the fear drains from her eyes. She lets out a sigh and then leans back, resting her head back against the pillows.

I think she's asleep, but then she sits up and opens her eyes, "It's gone."  
>"You beat it!" Says Dervish.<br>"I thought, I was going to lose."  
>"Well, you won," I say with a smile "but..."<br>"It'll be back." She finishes for me.

She stops and thinks for a moment. "What happens if I change?"  
>"You'll change back." I say.<br>"But what happens, to my mind. I've seen a werewolf before, just a feral creature, no more than an animal."  
>"You won't be conscious... when you change back, it'll be like waking up after a dream."<p>

"OK, Grubbs," says Dervish "let's keep things light. Hopefully you'll fight off the curse completely. If not, we'll get you cage, eh?" She smiles weakly at his sense of humour, which I have never grown used to.


	5. Chapter 7: The KahGash reunited

**Chapter 7: The Kah-Gash reunited**

"What's it like for you? To have control over the curse?" Asks Bec. It's dark in the room, Dervish and Kirrilli have both returned to our room. Meera has gone back to sleep, I can tell by her breathing. "Well, to be in control is to remain conscious. My body changes but my mind stays the same… well… almost."

"Almost?" She asks.  
>"Well, I don't entirely keep my mind, it changes a little, but I'm still me. Besides I have control over the change, I don't change unless I want to, that includes my mind."<p>

"How do you do it? How do you control it?"  
>"I'm not sure, with magic I guess. A while ago I was stuck fighting it, I lost a few times too, but I won in the end."<br>"Maybe it's the Kah-Gash." She suggests.  
>"Possibly," I say with a yawn "or maybe it's the magic, after all that's what I used to fight it, and that's what you used."<p>

"I think I'll sleep now," she says quietly closing her eyes and learning her head back, she seems to be concentrating. "Maybe I'll dream of the curse." I focus on her, she looks quite young, I try to remember that she lived such a long time ago. Just how long did she spend in that cave? A very long time, where time would slip by, and she spent the time in a strange state, neither dead or alive. That's why she at first found it a little difficult to sleep. "I won't change in my sleep, will I?" She asks opening her eyes, and turning to face me.

I stare straight into her eyes as if I would be able to see her thoughts if I looked hard enough. "No," I say looking away "it's over… for today at least." Slowly I re focus my gaze on her eyes again, realising that she can't see me as well as I can see her, she doesn't know how intently I'm staring. What's happening behind? Beneath those eyes, what's in your mind? A mind bank for one, she has all my own thoughts and memories in there, but what are you thinking?… Why do I want to know? Do I have trust issues all of a sudden?

"You sleep now," I say, "You definitely need the rest."  
>"You're right," she says quietly. I stand up slowly and lightly bash my head against the ceiling. Huh? I think, why am I half werewolf right now. I shrink back to my fully human form, just keeping my eyes and ears hyper sensitive.<p>

Bec clenches one hand into a fist and holds it over her stomach. "What are you doing now wolf?" She whispers quietly "when are you going to strike next?" Well, I think, it's going to strike tomorrow, around the same time. I'm about to answer, but then I realise that she wasn't expecting me to hear her, and so isn't expecting me to answer.

I take a few steps away and then turn around. I focus on her breathing as it slows. She's not asleep yet. She opens her eyes, "you don't have to wait till I fall asleep you know," she says, and smiles. I can't help but smile in return, although she can't actually see me. But just then, she looks beautiful. In the poor light, my vision is a world of greys. But still much richer than the world would appear to human eyes. I can see the dark shade of her hair, that would be a brilliant red in full light, I can see her smile, and her unfocused eyes that are staring vaguely out in front of her.

I stay for a few seconds looking back at her. "Ok," I answer simply. She half nods and closes her eyes and lays her head back. I leave the room quietly and return to my own room. I can tell by their breathing, that Kirilli and Dervish are both asleep.

I lie down on my bed and let my body fully convert to human. The world around me fades out into darkness. The slightest of sounds that were so prominent before fade away into inaudible whispers. In darkness and silence I can sleep. I really need to rest, tomorrow I'll be exposed to magic, I'll be fine then. There's no to sleep when I'm in an area of magic. However that's not much use when the magic then fades from the air. This is the only demon attack that we know of, after this I'm going to make up for all my lost sleep.

"Grubbs!" Shouts Dervish. It's the first thing I hear, dragging me out of sleep. "Get up!"  
>I growl at him in response. "What! It can't be more than a few hours since I went to sleep!" I complain. "Regardless Grubbs, <em>that<em> doesn't matter," he laughs, "Mark says we're behind schedule."  
>"Ah, he always says we're behind schedule." I continue to complain.<br>"I'm right here you know, Mr Grady." Says Mark "and I do say, that I don't give exaggerated predictions on our time."

I sigh and make my ears become more sensitive. "How much time do we have Mark?"  
>"I do not have an exact answer, between five and ten hours."<br>"Huh? That's not good… can we get to Argentina in less than five hours?"  
>"I'll admit, our outlook doesn't look good."<p>

I sigh and drag myself out of bed. Everyone else is dressed. Devish in his usual casual clothes. Kirilli in his stylish clothes. Which he is always running out of, they keep getting ruined in fights. Torn, frayed, stained with demonic blood, that sort of thing. Mark is in his usual half formal and half military look.

I get changed into my usual casual clothes and grab a pair of shorts that are way to big for me (and seriously, that's saying something.) When I'm in human form, I like to wear proper clothes. However that's no use when I need to turn into my wolf form.

I feel a little dizzy. I'm suffering from lack of sleep. "I could really do with a cup of coffee," I say.  
>"I don't really think we have the time for that," says Mark with a smile.<br>"Yeah, but, I'm really not joking."

"Ok, Grubbs," says Dervish starting to laugh "I'll get you a cup of coffee, you just get yourself into the jet."

Mark makes a phone call, and I catch his end of the conversation. "Mrs Athim, we're making our move now." A short pause, "Yes, get going as quickly as possible, follow us. Ok, Mark out, see you on landing zone."

"Where exactly is my pack?" I ask.  
>"A short distance away." Answers Mark unhelpfully.<br>"Where is that?" I sigh.  
>"Just outside of the airport, which reminds me, get going Grubbs, there's a couple of taxis waiting outside, get there."<p>

Mark leaves the room, and that just leaves me and Kirilli. I yawn loudly, "ah, this day isn't starting well."  
>"Aren't you looking forward to fighting demons?" Asks Kirilli.<br>"Can't say that I am, are you?"  
>"Me? Oh, I never am. I'm not a fighter you know, I'm a messenger."<br>"Well, for someone who's not a fighter, you've done a lot of fighting, done quite well too.  
>"Well; of course."<br>"Modesty isn't natural for you, is it?"I leave the room before Kirilli starts\an argument. He does fight well, and is very brave like the other mages, but he's a little vain. He has a tendency to take the credit for other people's work, and exaggerates everything that he does.

I hurry down the corridor and catch up with Bec and Meera. "Sleep well Grubbs?" Enquires Meera.  
>"Oh, I slept fine, just not enough of it." Bec hold one hand up to her head,<br>"I didn't sleep enough either."I focus on Bec, she does look tired, but that's not surprising, seeming as she spent some of the night fighting of the transformation.

We hurry down the stairs. Just as I'm approaching the door, Dervish intercepts my path and hands a cup of coffee over to me. "As promised!" He laughs as he hands it over. I wasn't expecting him to actually get me a cup of coffee. Well, I'm not going to complain.

"What is that?" Asks Bec as we climb into the back of a taxi.  
>"What? This?" I ask holding up the coffee. "It's a…." I trail off, trying to think of a way to describe it to Bec. "It's a hot drink, and helps to wake people up."<br>"How does it do that?"  
>"It's got caffeine in it." I look at her blank expression. I'm guessing that word didn't translate. I shrug, "don't worry about it."<p>

We're not far from the airport. However the journey takes longer than expected. The streets are so busy, and the taxi is going so slow that I begin to wonder whether we'd have better luck getting out and running. That would probably get us there faster. I can just picture how impatient Mark is now.

Soon we arrive at the airport. I can see the taxi in front of us, I see Mark come rushing out of the taxi, stopping to pay, and then strides towards the airport. Kirilli and Meera rush after him.

Our taxi stops. Dervish pays the driver and then waits outside. I can see Mark is still by the entrance of the airport. Even now that he's waiting for us, he still looks like he's rushing. Mark can still be rushed even when he's stationary. We must be rather short of time then.

Devish, Bec and me hurry after Mark, who sets of as soon as he sees we're on our way. Quickly we catch up with Kirilli and Meera.

We pass through the airport as easily as we arrived. Mark talks to the right people, and we are led directly on to one of the runways, where we have two jets waiting. Mark makes a quick phone call. "Get the jet up in the air Mrs Athim, circle round, and then follow us, as soon as we get going."

In a few minutes we're on our way. Mark is making another phone call. When he's finished we start discussing how we're going to do this. "Ok, we're pinpointed the location of the oncoming crossing. We just need to think about where we land."  
>"Is there an airport nearby?" Asks Dervish.<br>"I'm checking now." Says Mark opening a laptop.

After a couple of minutes Mark gets another phone call. He answers it, and quickly he becomes alarmed. "What! No! You've got to be kidding me!"

"What is it?" I ask.

Mark ignores me. "Where is it? And I need a specific location." There's a puase. "Oh, that's close to… no that should be in the same place…. Are you sure this isn't the same crossing as the other one.? Yes there's another one. Ok, sounds like there's two, but they're in the same place."

"What's going on?" Asks Dervish.  
>"Another demon attack it seems, another window is due to open in a few hours, it seems it'll be opening at the same time and place as the other one."<br>"So there'll just be two windows?" Asks Meera.  
>"Yes, either that, or the same window got reported to me twice."<p>

Mark makes a few more phone calls. He's trying to get the place evacuated. However it's hard work, evacuating an entire city in a few hours is difficult. Trying to explain why it needs to be done is harder. Eventually he decides on a story about a bomb, planted by terrorists. Again, he decides on a story about a bomb, it's the only thing that really works. However if he keeps using this story people are going to get suspicious.

The disciples have even made up a fake terrorist group called the demons (what a great name, seriously, no imagination, and it's even a little bit suspicious.) There's been a lot of crossings lately, and thousands of people have seen demons now, and some have discovered hidden powers. Now loads of people believe in them, and lots of cults have started to develop around them. New apocalypse dates have been predicted by lunatics. However what most people don't know is it really is the end of the world, at least as they know it.

With people talking about demons and destruction, the new terrorist group called the demons fits in well. It provides an explanation to sensible people, who want a rational explanation for the sudden surge of demon stories. The descriptions of real demons is just disregarded as the shell shock of the suffering victims. Their imagination and mental instability.

However, there are still a lot of people who truly believe in demons. Most of these aren't the direct witnesses. There's been footage of demons, and it's leaked onto the internet, despite the disciples attempt to destroy it. Of course most people would think it a joke, and some think the terrorist group, the demons, made it to spread their publicity.

The made up motive for this fake terrorist group is to abolish all forms of government. The story is that they believe everyone, should be completely equal, and all wealth should be spread evenly. Their name doesn't fit their description very well ad their method of gaining publicity conflicts bizarrely with their aim. Not to mention the people who have supposedly suffered at their hand becoming mentally unstable and babbling constantly about demons.

The terrorist group, the demons has made big news, due to the sudden frequent attacks. However there's always a lot of confusion surrounding them. Because despite their attacks and their publicity, they seem so absent. No one has ever heard anything about the members, only their motive.

So Mark is trying to get the place evacuated under the story of the fake terrorist group. I don't think he's having much success. He keeps telling us he's having trouble. It's such short notice, and he doesn't have enough contacts to deal with it. Everyone who isn't working for the disciples is asking questions. How? Why? Where? Why haven't we heard about this? How did the demons smuggle the bomb in? How could no one notice them planting it? Are you sure there really is a bomb?

After a while Mark stops his work. "Looks like we can't stop this window, or windows from opening."  
>"How could we stop them?" I ask.<br>"If the place is evacuated properly, the mages opening the windows would be disturbed, so far this hasn't happened, their just too dam hard to locate."

"We'll be landing soon." Says Mark. "The evacuation hasn't gone too well, we've only managed to evacuate a small area, so the civilians are at risk. We've got to contain this attack. There's a possibility the demons could reach the civilians, and they'll definitely be heard."

The jet lands and everyone rushes out onto the runway. "Grubbs?" Asks Bec, she notices I've stayed behind.  
>"Go on ahead, I catch you up in a minute."<p>

I change shorts and a t shirt, then stop to think about whether I should wear trainers. It's not like I could stop for a moment while the demons are attacking to take them off. Then again, if there's an evacuated area I could take them off there; unless the attack had already started.

In the end I decide not to wear any trainers. I'll just go barefoot, even if it is a little suspicious.

We rush through the air port. We attract a lot of attention, people are curious and suspicious about us. Walking casually barefoot is definitely a cause for suspicion, especially when walking with a group who are all wearing shoes. Then, us as a group is also quite odd.

Mark calls Prae Athim to talk about the werewolves. "We've got a problem, the evacuated area is too small, it doesn't reach the airport." There's a puase while Prae talks. "I know but we can't take a group of werewolves through a load of civiliations, the chaos it would create… we can't do that."

"Oh." I say "so my pack won't be with us.""I'm afraid for now we don't have the support of your werewolves. If the demons reach the civilians, we'll bring your wolves through for support."

As we proceed the amount of people we see increases. Soon we come across a tight crowd of people. I realise that they're surrounding a taped of area. So _this_ is the evacuated area, it does look a bit small.

We walk right through the crowd, and march up to one of the police officers guarding the area. Mark as a quick talk with him, mentioning the name of one of the chief officer, who has granted us access. The police officer is so confused. I can just imagine what we look like to him.

Unknown to the police officer, we're using a translation spell, the same one that allows us to communicate with Bec. We can talk to anyone, and they'll hear us in their own language, we can also hear them in our language.

He lets us through after talking to his superior. "Thanks," says Mark, "We'll try and deactivate the bomb."

"Hang on!" I say when we're out of earshot. "What's our alibi?"  
>"We're the bomb deactivation team."<br>"No way! You've got to be kidding me!" I'm not the only one who finds this funny, Dervish bursts out laughing, Meera and Kirilli join in too.

"What's so funny?" Asks Bec."We don't exactly look the part," I say.

We definitely do not look like a bomb deactivation team. First there's me, a teenager with no shoes. A small girl, same age. Dervish and Meera in their casual clothes, and Kirilli too. The only formal looking person is Mark. He's the only one who could pass as a technician.

"Ok, the windows are due to open any moment now, I'm bringing my men through." Says Mark.

Soldiers begin to surround the area, most position themselves behind us, and Mark drifts back to stand by them. There's an uneasy quiet, it would be silent, if it weren't for the noise the civilians were making. It seems like they want to get back into this area, I don't know why, if I thought there was a bomb nearby, Id happily stay out the way.

"Over there!" Shouts Bec, pointing in front of her. Several hundred meters in front of us, a window has formed. A brown panel of light. There's a pause of a few seconds and then the demons start to pour out.

I growl in a low voice. "I want my pack," I say.  
>"Grubbs, it's unwise to bring them through."<br>"Without my pack, the civilians are going to be slaughtered by demons, bring them here!"

The wave of magic has hit me. I feel much more powerful. There's so much energy in the air, this is going to be easy. I take off my t shirt and throw it to the ground.

I change into a half werewolf, the best form for fighting demons. With both the power of a werewolf and a magician. I wait for the demons to hit us. There's one ahead of all the others. It looks like a giant scorpion, but it has a lot of legs.

Just then another window appears, close to the other one, about fifty metres or so to the left of the first one. The scorpion demon reaches me and tries to sting me. I'm more than ready for this, but I don't even get a chance to act. The tail explodes and the demon is blasted back by a wave of magic.

It's Bec who had intervened. "You know I could of dealt with that," I growl."Sorry, I thought it was going to hit you.""Hey Grubbs! You're not the only demon hunter here!" Calls Dervish from behind me.

I jump forwards and raise both my fists into the air, and then pound the demon on the head. It collapses. I stab it's head with my claws and blast magic into it's head, flying it's brains. The demons lets out and ear splitting screech and dies. Just then the air ignites in screams, Among the loud panic, I can hear other sounds, my pack has arrived.

With a roar I charge forward. "Gubbs!" Calls Bec. I wonder why she's warning me. About demons? Yeah I know they're here too. Right in front of me is a demon the size of an elephant. It's legs look like crocodile legs, and it's trunk is a snake.

The snake part hisses at me. I grab it and rip it off. The beast gets angry and charges at me. I jump high and land on it back. I slash at the creatures back, tearing through it's thick skin. The demon shakes, so I dig the claws of my feet into the demon, and slash at it's back a few more times

I stop, draw myself into a standing position and place my hands in front of me. The air has ignited into chaos, the civilians are screaming, my pack are howling, the air is filling with bullets, the sound is hurting my ears. I ignore the world around me and focus on this demon. I fire two bolts of magic at the demon. The flesh that is stuck explodes, and the demon collapses with a whining roar.

I gather in power from the air and raise a fisted hand in front of me. I unleash a sphere of magic and the demon's head. It strikes and there's a spray on demonic blood, and the fresh explodes. I raise my fist my head, and then bring it down with force. My fist smashes through the demons skull and pulverises it's brain.

I jump off the giant demon, however it's still twitching, I ignore it. A giant eagle shaped demon tries to stab me with razor sharp beak. I grab it's beak and then prize it open, planning to rip it's jaw apart. The eagle beast also has teeth. It's strikes out at me with it's talons, gouging into my chest. I hiss at it and heal the damage.

I hold the beak shut again with one hand and draw the other back. With one sweep I slash apart it's talons. Then I prise apart the beak, with a magic boosted strength. I hear a crunching sound, and blood starts to pour from fractures in it's skin. I let go and the eagle beast go's slack, just then a huge body rushes towards me.

I only have a split second to respond, it's so fast. I put a shield up in front of me, but I only had a quarter of a second to make it. The body smashes through the barrier and straight into me. I'm thrown back, and feel several ribs crack.

I realise the body is actually the back part of the same demon, only half of it is an eagle. The other half is a massive snake like tail. I heal my injuries and jump to my feet. I pounce onto the tail and rip it to shreds with my claws. Blood sprays all over me, I'm now soaked in demonic blood.

I see two demons charging forward. One has the body of a wolf with the head of a sabre toothed tiger. The other has the body of a tiger and the head of what looks like a leech. It also has six pairs of giant spider legs.

I grab the first one by it's wolf body and slam it down onto the road. The tiger mouth opens and flames gush up towards me. I shout in surprise and jump back. The demon jumps onto it's feet and comes at me breathing it's fire. I disperse the flames. "You like fire huh?" I grunt. I point one hand at it and powerful blue flames erupt from ,my palm like a volcano. The sabre toothed tiger head is scorched in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly a giant leech head latches on my other arm. I scream as half a litre of blood is yanked from arm. I turn it to strong acid as its ripped from body. The leech head lets go, and flails around wildly. The head turn to sludge and smashes into the ground.

The body is still moving. I lash out with one of my hands and cut off it's two front legs. The other dour scrabble around trying to compensate for balance. I fire a bolt of magic and the body. It collapses to join it's head and lays still.

I charge back into the midst of the fight. My pack have things under control here. The mages have pressed forward, and the soldiers are cautiously making ground, firing whenever anything gets to close.

Most of the civilians have fled the area in a confused panic. I see a few are glued to the spot with… fear perhaps? Maybe shock and confusion. Unbelievably a few have got their mobile phones out and are recording the chaos.

I tackle a bear demon taking it to the ground. I haven't accounted for it's ten bladed tentacles. What feels like a hundred knives piece me everywhere. My breath catches in my throat. My vision blurs, the world phases into a realm of confusion. I react immediately. I send a strong current of electricity into the limbs.

The blades are withdrawn. Quickly I heal the countless wounds. Then I focus of the demon's limbs and catch them with magic. I throw it's own limbs straight at it. So the demon ends up stabbing itself in ten places. I raise one hand in front of me and explode the blades with a wave of magic. The blades are already in the demon, so the body is destroyed.

A small lizard demon pounces at me and latches onto me. Claws and fangs dig into me. I roar at it, and rip it away with one of my clawed hands. I slam it down hard onto the ground, keeping claws dug in. I unleash a wave of magic from the tips of my claws. The demon is blown apart.

There are two more small lizard like demons. I fire a bolt of magic at one. It's hits and it blasted of it's six feet and sent rolling over. I pick up the other one by it's head and then crush it's skull. I drop the dead lizard and fire another bolt at the first. The lizard quickly jumps to the side dodging my attack, and comes charging at me.

With a quick swing of my arm I grab it's throat. I make my hand red hot and burn it's throat. I throw the dead creature to the ground with a grunt of satisfaction.

"Stand firm!" I hear Mark yell, "Advance!" He continues to roar.

I see a tortoise like demon standing in front of me. I wonder how fast that this can move? It spits acid at me, quickly I wave my hand and deflect it straight back. The creature withdraws into it's shell. The acid strikes the shell, just where the top of it's head was.

The acid doesn't do much damage to the shell. I laugh at the demon and run over to it. I raise a fist into the air. With a magic imbued hit my fist smashes the shell and heavily damages the demon underneath.

The creature jerks away. It has a long bladed tail which lashes out and sweeps across my chest leaving a deep wound. I scream in outrage and blast the tail apart. Then I fire a bolt of magic at the demon killing it.

I charge towards a creature than looks like a dragon. It got lots of snakes sticking out of either side making a wing pattern. I dash towards it and then strafe towards my right, catching the beast's throat with the claws on my left hand.

My claws rip through and the demon swings around swiping at me with one of it's paws. I catch it's paw, and then the numerous snakes lash out and start biting me. I crunch my face, recoiling from it's attacks. I keep hold of its paw and use my other and to fire three bolts of magic at the snakes.

The dragon roars at me. There's nothing left of the snakes on this side except a bloody mess. I keep a tight grasps and spin the demon around in a circle, and then up in the air, and then smash it into the tarmac.

I stab at the demon's throat with my claws. I keep my claws dug into the dragon's throat and ignore a few snake snapping at my feet. I grip the creature's and then grab onto the back of its head with my other hand. I give and almighty tug and the head rips off. The body continues to flail around a few times. I blast it twice with magic.

I look up to assess the battle. Something catches my eye. Someone standing in the middle of the battle. They're not doing anything, looking rather bewildered, like they weren't expecting a fight. He's got brown skin, even from the back I recognise him immediately. Kernal!

I feel excitement and some confusion as I charge towards him. I grab from behind and lift him up into the air. He yells and struggles against me. I chuckle, "don't you recognise me?" I ask in a low growl of a voice. I set him down on the ground and he turns to face me.

His jaw drops, and I laugh. "Grubbs?" He asks in a shocked voice.

I chuckle again, "Don't have time to talk, got demons to kill."

"Right… leave the windows to me."

I'm amazed at his sudden appearance. Where the hell did he come from? Where the hell did he go?

I've got no time to ponder over Kernal. I've got demons to kill, and I need to cover him. Kernal is about to cut this battle short, but he's going to need some covering fire. I howl in excitement an charge ahead of him.

There a demon ahead of me. Its got the body of a horse, two lion heads, and a long scorpion tail, and it's legs are huge, that of a rhino. I charge at it and smash the palm of my hand into one of it's lion heads. The head snaps back and several of it's teeth shatter.

The scorpion tail lashes out towards me. I dodge to one side. It withdraws it's tail to take another shot at me. Quickly, I leap over it and grab it's tail. I sink my fangs into the base of its tail and rip it off.

The beast body slams into me. I'm knocked back slightly, but a horse body isn't very effective at body slamming. I drop down and blast blue fire from my opens hands. I use my hands like flamethrowers and burn away the demon's thick skinned legs. The beast collapses, it's legs disintegrating into ash and scorched flesh.

I pound away into the lion heads until I've destroyed them.

I charge forward again. There's a demon that looks like an octopus up in front of me. It's got two bear legs to carry it, the rest is a mess of tentacles.

One of it's tentacles lashes out at me and wraps around my stomach. It starts to squeeze, hard. I rip into the tentacle with my claws and cut it off. The demon throws more of it's tentacles at me. The strike into me with huge force. This demon can throw powerful punches.

I counter strike. Slashing at the limbs with my clawed hands. Soon the demon's limbs are covered in wounds and blood. I fire a blast of magic right at where it's face would be, if it had one. It's staggers back on it's bear legs. I draw in more power from the air and fire a more powerful blast. The octopus head is blown apart.

There's a giant bat swooping past me. I jump up and grab it by the wind. I drag the demon down onto the ground and smash it's head in with one of my fists.

I look up. There's nothing left to fight here. My werewolves have charged straight in, and the soldiers have advanced. The battle has been taken to the windows. Just then one of the windows close. Good work Kernal! I think, now take apart the other one.

In a couple of minutes the other window disappears from existence. All the demons react to this. They all scream in anger and hate and launch a counter attack fuelled by their knowledge that they're going to die anyway.

A troll like demons charges at me hatefully. It throws a punch at me, I jump to the side, and then blindingly quick it throws another that catches me in the chest. The force throws me several metres back.

The demon charges after me. I blast it with a wave of magic to stop it from crushing me. Then I grab onto one of it's arms with a hand of magic and lob it up into the air. I fire a blast of magic at it while it's in the air. Blood sprays from it in several locations. Then the beast smashes in the ground. I run over to it and slash it's throat with my claws.

A strange demon staggers towards me. It stands upright, it's taller than me, and has a large head with no eyes. It has one large arm and fist, and one small arm. It throws its large fist at me and catch it with both my hands. There's less force behind the punch than I was expecting. The magic has started to disperse and the demons are weakening.

I give the fist a vicious twist. I hear a crunch but the arm doesn't rip off. I let go and fire two bolts of magic at the creatures head. The demon staggers back, blood praying from its head, it takes a few steps and falls over backwards.

Now that no more demons are coming we're finishing them off quickly. The soldiers now charge forwards roaring. They punch and kick demons to the ground and then riddle them with bullets. Others are killed from afar.

This fight is over. Now we have all three pieces of the Kah-Gash again.


End file.
